Minnahaha

Last week I took the girls to a playgroup at a Minnahaha Park here in Orlando. Isn't that a very random and interesting name? It also had turf instead of grass. Very cool. The play date was with the multiples group. It's still so funny to sit and watch a bunch of twins and triplets run around like crazy people (oh, wait... that is what the parents of multiples feel like :) Everyone brought bouncy balls to the park. It was nuts. There were balls going everywhere and kids fighting over balls....it was quite amusing.

Jocelyn is a little monkey...

Gabbie likes to stay a little closer to the ground...

I thought this picture was cute...

They do things that just crack me up....like sticking their sippy cups into their snack cups to drink out of them. Hilarious. They thought this was by far the coolest thing that they had ever done. Gabbie is usually the one to come up with these very innovative ideas and then Jocelyn immediately copies her...

Half Marathon.......Check

I have always wanted to run a half marathon and a couple of weeks ago I finally was able to check it off my "bucket list" :) I definitely didn't want to train for one and run one by myself so Stacey (a friend down here) and I did our long runs every week together and then ran the race together. It was definitely the way to go. The race day was full of rain, but atleast it kept us cool :) The race was so fun and I actually didn't feel that terrible when it was over (however, the next day was pretty rough!). I would love to run one maybe once a year or something...we shall see....

Shane and the girls surprised me at the finish line (however they arrived about 5 minutes too late...but I appreciated the effort :)

The girls loved my really cool metal that I received for finishing the race :)

Thanksgiving Festivities!!

My entire family came down here and stayed with us for the week of Thanksgiving. My mom, dad, brother, sister-in-law, and their two children stayed here at our house (the Summervilles got to go stay at the beach for a week which allowed extra space for my family....thanks guys!!) My sister, brother-in-law, and their daughter stayed with our great friends Josh and Stacey (thanks to you as well!!). I also had two sets of Aunts and Uncles and cousins come down as well. They stayed at Disney. My parents got here one day before the rest of my family so we took them to Seaworld. They had never been and we knew they would love it (we have been once before and it is definitely one of our favorite parks down here). We opted to get babysitters for the girls so we could actually enjoy our day at Seaworld :)

Here we are about to watch Shamu....we decided to sit really high in the stands so we wouldn't get drenched :)

Me & Momma; Shane & Daddy

Very cool Christmas tree

I even got my parents (and Shane) to ride Seaworld's newest roller coaster, the Manta. I need to mention that my parents have never ridden anything close to a ride like this. I was AMAZED that they got on it. I thought that all 3 of them were going to have heart-attacks before the ride even began! We did all survive, however, when it came to a stop, my dad looked slightly green. He then said that one more loop and everybody behind him on the ride would have been covered in throw-up. Glad he was able to hold it down! It was an AWESOME roller coaster by the way!

While all my family was visiting, my bestest friend ever came to visit us for a few hours. Kari and Abraham were heading down to South Florida for their family Thanksgiving and decided to fly into Orlando so they could come see us!! We haven't seen them since they got married back in April. It was SO GREAT to see you guys (but way too short!)

My family spent 3 days going to different Disney parks. It was their first Disney experience. It was also Thanksgiving week and everyone on the planet (at least 90% of the population) goes to Disney during Thanksgiving week. So, when you put those two facts together...let's just say...they had an interesting few days :) One day I kept my nephew, Landon, so that my brother and sister-in-law could have a little more "freedom" to enjoy Disney. He is so cute and so much more layed back than my two. The girls showed him the ropes pretty quickly. Here is Jocelyn and Gabbie showing him how to get into the pantry and the recycle bin and play with all the nasty containers that are in it :) The also showed him how to get into the spice rack, open the spices and pour all the spices on the floor (I wasn't in the mood to snap a pic of that :).....and they were able to show him all of this during the 2 minutes that I was going to the bathroom. They are good...

One night, I took the girls (Shane had clinic...nice) and drove to Downtown Disney and met my whole family (Aunts, Uncles and cousins included) at a restaurant called the Rainforest Cafe for dinner. It was like 30-something people....yes, I did call ahead and make reservations, thankfully. I got there early so I took the girls for a ride on the carousal. They actually loved it despite their (I'm not a big fan of this) faces on the above pic :)

The girls were trying to talk MawMaw and PawPaw into getting these enormous, severely overpriced rain frogs for them :)


About half of our clan....I couldn't get everyone in one picture

My sister, Emily, her husband, Josh and their daughter Kaylea

My brother, Uncle "D", with Gabbie

This was the first time that I have ever cooked an entire Thanksgiving meal (my mom did help me, thankfully :). It was ALOT of work. I am now way more thankful for all the people that usually cook Thanksgiving dinner while I sit around and do nothing!

It was SO great having all my family together down here for Thanksgiving. Here is a pic of my immediate family minus the girls. They were napping. (yay for naps!)

Me with my brother and sister

They all rented a minivan and drove down together. They were definitely packed like sardines :)

So glad all of you got to come!! We love ya'll!!

What have we been up to lately??

Fighting over who gets to play in the exersaucer (which we are both way too big for anyways...)

Sitting in one crib and eating cheese all at the same time...

Playing with stickers. We are OBSESSED with stickers. We LOVE them. We love to put them all over our tummies as well as on mommy and daddy's face and head :)

Squeezing daddy's nose.....

Playing in our new favorite toy....the minivan! We love pushing all the buttons and messing up all the settings on the stereo. We even figured out how to put the key in the ignition and turn it...but then mommy hurried up and took the keys away....we don't really understand why...we were having so much fun!

Piling into a single laundry basket full of already folded clothes...

Doing our daily chores....

Big Girls

Each week I take the girls to a playgroup with some other moms from our church. They so want to be like the big girls at playgroup. Here they are sitting at a big girl table eating lunch. I want to cry....they are growing up way too fast!!

Like Father, Like Daughter...

I asked Shane to hang a sheet over the window in the girls' room so that the sun wouldn't come beaming in SO brightly at 6.30 in the morning. The girls watched him to this task. He had to stand on their kitchen set to be able to reach the curtain rod. Later that afternoon, the girls were playing in their room and I hear Jocelyn start screaming..."mommyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy, mommyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!" in this terrified voice. I walked in and this is what I saw. She just wanted to be like her daddy...she just couldn't figure out how to get back down :)

The MAC Cruise

Every year the Master's of Counseling (MAC) class takes a fall retreat. It is usually at some random hotel in Daytona Beach. Well, this year they decided to step it up a notch and go on a CRUISE instead!! AND spouses could come as well!!! whoop, whoop! To say that I was excited is a major understatement :) It was a 3 night Royal Caribbean cruise that left from Cape Canaveral (which is only like 45 minutes from where we live). Gran (Shane' mom) and HayHay (Hayward, her new husband) graciously volunteered to watch the girls for the weekend. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I had been on one other cruise when I was in college. This was Shane's first one. He was very nervous about getting sick (he gets HORRIBLE motion sickness). Needless to say, he stayed drugged up the whole time and wasn't sick at all despite the ocean being very rough and the boat rocking pretty much the whole cruise. I was shocked he didn't get sick. Very glad, but shocked.

I love getting to dress up for the dinners. My normal daily wardrobe consists of running shorts and tank tops, so I was super pumped about wearing "real" clothes :)

Our ship..."Monarch of the Seas"

Our first stop was in Nassau. It was overcast and kind of chilly, but we still had a blast. We took a boat over to the Atlantis Hotel to have a look around. They definitely pack the boats to the brim....

The Atlantis hotel was, well, just a little bit nice (haha). The arch you can see in the picture is a suite that you can stay in for the small price of $25,000 a night, oh, and there is a 3 night minimum requirement. We will definitely be booking our next vacation there.

We snuck into the aquarium that is inside the hotel. I mean, we didn't lie or anything, we just walked in and they didn't stop us. We were really happy about that! The fish were way cool!

There was this really huge, crystal thingy in one of the lobbies. ..

The hotel also had a private beach....very nice...you had to pay just to walk on it. We opted to just get a glance from a distance

Formal Night :)

Here are some of Shane's professors and supervisors that came on the cruise.

Some of the girls in Shane's class...

On the second day we were supposed to be spending the day at a private island called CoCo Kay (not sure of the spelling). However, due to the hurricane that was out in the ocean, the waters were too rough to dock, so we had to spend the day at sea. We were a little bummed, but still had lots of fun on the ship. At least it was a beautiful sunny day!

This is Dr. Coffield and his wife, Mona. He is one of Shane's professors and supervisors. He is also the counselor that Shane and I have been meeting with on a regular basis. We are VERY grateful forboth of them!

Zach (one of Shane's classmates) and his wife, Ellen.

Of course one of the most fabulous things about a cruise is the FOOD!! And the 24 hour access to the food! I think I ate enough in those 3 days for the whole year. It was definitely Shane's favorite thing about the whole weekend :)

That, my friends, is a enormous piece of meat...

My favorite part of dinner was the desserts! Yes, this is where I was sitting. Yes, that is 4 different desserts. They all looked so fabulous I had to try them all and they were all AMAZING!

Our Waiter...he and Shane became great friends :)

Here is Shane (blue), Demetrius (pink) and some of the girls in their class breaking it down one night at one of the MANY dancing locations on the boat. Fun times :)